It was as if the rain clouds knew that Max and his party had passed beyond the city walls, for it was at that very moment that the rain fell. It came down in ferocious torrents, swept forward on a chill wind. It was little comfort that the wind was at their backs, but as the night wore on the wind changed, swirling to hit the party from the sides. Eventually, Max found he was battling into the wind and rain as he trudged on over the paved road.
On more than one occasion, Max considered casting a Fireball spell in their path, setting aflame one of the thickets that sprang up alongside the road to warm himself on this cold, wet night. As he considered it, now he wondered if he did have an active Fireball spell. He hadn’t looked at his Mage Book for a few days, not while he resided at Castle Ralynn. He was well rested, so any spells he had selected when he’d last checked would now be active and ready for him to cast. He searched his Satchel. The Mage Book was here somewhere amongst his assorted gear and came instantly to hand. It fitted easily in the palm of his hand but grew when he opened it.
>
>
> Mage Book
>
>
>
> Level 1 Spells:
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> • Magic Missile
>
> • Detect Enemies
>
> Level 2 Spells:
>
> • Strength
>
> Level 3 Spells:
>
> • Shield
>
> • Fireball
>
>
>
> Active spells:
>
> • Magic Missile
>
> • Magic Missile
>
> • Magic Missile
>
> • Magic Missile
>
> • Magic Missile
>
> • Strength
>
> • Fireball
>
>
Max remembered now that he had prepared his favored collection of spells a few days before. He’d had no need to cast a single spell while he’d taken his ease in Castle Ralynn. His selected spells were all available to him. It was satisfying to see the active spells shimmering on the page, but it did little to warm him against the wind and rain on this dark night.
Elderon had cast a spell of Bring Light, causing his staff to glow with a brilliant white light, showing them the road ahead. Max thought that he would like to learn that spell for himself. He’d first need to find a Scroll of Bring Light somewhere, maybe in a store, and learn it so it appeared in his Mage Book. But what Max really needed on a night like this was a protective sphere to hold the rain off and something to keep him warm too. He plodded on behind Elderon and imagined all the spells that could make this cold and wet night march more comfortable.
The clouds parted briefly and gave Max a fleeting view of the deep, dark sky flecked with starlight. Max could not believe that the void of space could be any colder than the landscape before him. The way ahead was darker even than the star-studded sky. The landscape all around would have been pure blackness if it wasn’t for Elderon spell of Bring Light. Even so, Elderon purposely kept the light level low, illuminating only a small area around the party. Max chose to walk next to Anita, who held her bundle of glowing moss in her hand. The low-green light from the moss gave much less light than Elderon’s spell, lighting up only a few steps ahead. It gave him a perfect excuse to walk close to the dusky Druid. He could feel the heat radiating off her body. She wore only a few strips of leather. A cropped padded leather tunic, her short fighting skirt, and high leather boots, but she showed no signs of discomfort, and the cold hardly touched her. In fact, she was like a walking furnace. She wrapped an arm around Max and held him close. He relished her soft skin and the heat she gave out.
Somewhere close behind, hidden in the dark, was Jahrod. He was totally lost in the darkness, but Max could hear the rattle and clatter of his heavy armor and the occasional sounds of him eating, crunching rotten flesh and bone under those heavy crushing teeth hidden away behind his thick wiry beard.
“How come he doesn’t trip or anything?” Max said to Anita, his voice raised only just enough to cut through the howling wind.
“Dwarfs are accustomed to darkness. It’s their nature as miners and cave dwellers. It lets them see when there is little or no light.”
Max could barely make out the shape of trees and hills in the distance. Only when he felt the struggle to climb did he realize they were now heading up a slope that was getting steeper by the minute. The wind became weaker, and Max could hear the rustle of mighty tree branches. He realized he was in the shelter of a stand of trees.
“We will rest here for a few hours,” Elderon said. “It is close to dawn. We will warm and dry ourselves and be ready to move into the Hinge before sunrise.”
Max wiped water from his face. How could they warm and dry themselves in this rain? The trees gave some shelter from the wind, but the rain fell steadily. He could sit next to Anita and be warm, but he was soaked through, and the rain showed no signs of stopping.
“Gather close,” Elderon said.
Max squeezed close to Anita. She smiled at him and pressed him to her bosoms. There were worse places he could be. Then Jahrod pressed in close too. His cold armor was uncomfortable, and the rain had made his pungent personal aroma even more powerful. Max didn’t know there could be a smell worse than Jahrod, but it turned out rain-soaked Jahrod was about all Max could stand without passing out.
Then the rain stopped. Max looked around in surprise and a smattering of hope but a pessimistic sense that the rain would return any moment. Then he noticed that the rain was still falling only a few feet away. He looked up and saw the rain parting overhead.
“A Mage Sphere,” Max said, looking around, the rain running down the sides of the invisible barrier. He held out his hand. It passed through the barrier, and he felt the rain.
“Yes, it will keep the rain off us,” Elderon said. “Now for some heat.”
Elderon held his hands out, palms down. The ground grew warm, steam rising. Then a wind swirled around in the sphere. Max felt his clothes dry out. He sat down on the ground that was warm and dry, pulled out his Blanket of Comfort, and laid it on the ground.
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“Great work, Elderon,” Max said, lying down. “You’ll have to teach me that one day.” Max smiled up at Anita and nodded to his side, offering her space on his blanket. She sat next to him and settled down to sleep.
Max wrapped an arm around Anita. He could lie with her all night. Then he felt a cold hard surface pressed to his back and the rattle of heavy armor.
“Move up, Mage,” Jahrod said and pushed Max closer to Anita. “There is plenty of room on your blanket for a dwarf.”
Max looked up at Elderon, hoping to find support from his mentor, but the old Mage appeared fast asleep, standing in the center of the sphere, staff at his side. Eyes closed and breathing easy. He looked as comfortable as if he were lying on a soft feather bed.
Anita turned over, her nose touching Max’s. She looked at him with her beautiful green eyes.
“Sleep, Mage,” she said and closed her eyes.
Max listened to the wind roaring through the branches nearby, the rain splattering on thick bunches of leaves. He closed his eyes and was soon asleep.
When he awoke, the sky was still dark. Jahrod was sitting up and looking into the darkness. Elderon was awake and looking the same way. Max felt so rested, he wondered if he had slept through the entire day and into the next night.
Anita yawned as she opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was Max. She smiled.
“The Blanket of Comfort is very effective,” she said as she stretched, her cropped tunic bulging as she did so. “I have reactivated all my prepared spells.”
“How long were we asleep?” Max said.
Elderon turned. “Four hours. It is one hour until sunrise. We move. Now.”
The dark path ahead rose steeply. After a short walk, they were out of the cover of the trees, and the wind came strong and chill, but mercifully, the rain had stopped.
As the sun came up, Max could see they were walking on the top of a range of low hills. A path cut across the very top of the hills. Down in the valleys on either side were thick forests. Away to Max’s left, in the far distance and hazy as the sun came up, Max could see a body of water glinting in the sun.
“That is the Salt River,” Anita said, following Max’s gaze. “As deep as the Kraken Sea but only two miles wide at its widest point. They say the ancient kraken tried to split Awen in two to keep men and elves apart but left the land at the Hinge when he saw them meeting as friends.”
“Is that right?” Max looked up to Elderon.
“No,” Jahrod said. “Rocks can move. Men and elves think the world is the way it is now and as it always has been, but dwarfs know the rock that makes the world can move. When you mine deep in the rock, you learn its moods. It will be silent for an age, and then it will move all of a sudden. It creates passageways deep underground, closes others. The Salt River was formed by the rock of the world taking a breath.”
“Caution now,” Elderon said. “Tollgate ahead.”
Max looked along the ridge path. He could just about make out the tollgate in the distance. Max thought Elderon’s eyes must be very good, or maybe it was his extra few inches of height that let him see the gate. As he pondered it, he guessed that Elderon was using some sort of spell to scout the way ahead.
After a few more minutes walking, the tollgate became clearer. It covered the width of the ridge path. A timber palisade ran to the steepest edge of the hill on either side. In the center of the palisade, across the beaten earth-path on the ridge, was a gatehouse of two timber towers, one on either side of the open gate.
“What’s to stop us going around?” Max said, looking down the grassy slope to the side of the path.
“The grass is slippery wet even in the driest of summers. The palisade only goes as far as it needs to. Anyone trying to get around will slip down into the forested valleys on either side.”
“And what’s to stop anyone going through the forest?” Max said.
“The trees,” Elderon said.
“Why, do they kill people?”
Anita and Jahrod laughed.
“Only if you fall out of one,” Jahrod said.
“No,” Anita said, wrapping an arm over his shoulder,” they don’t kill.” She pointed down to the forest below on her left. “That is the West Ridge Forest. The trees are thick here.” She pointed away to her right. “And over there is the East Ridge Forest. Dense undergrowth makes it almost impossible to pass. Any who cut their way through the undergrowth find it growing back behind them. It is a huge effort to pass that way. It would take an army . . .” She stopped talking.
Max saw how she became serious for a moment. Of course, an army was coming this way.
At the open gate, a pair of Ralynn guards waited. Not raw recruits or some old soldiers put out to pasture. These guys looked capable. The guardhouse at one side looked large enough to comfortably house a dozen guards, but Max could only see the two on the ridge path. They appeared relaxed enough beneath their rough exterior, but there was a sense of readiness, alertness. He checked their stats.
>
>
> Name: Ralynn Guards
>
> Status: Alert
>
> Attack: Slashing Longsword
>
> Threat level: Serious
>
>
“Hail, Ralynn guards,” Elderon said. He produced a small leather disk on a leather thread and showed it to the guard. “I come with the seal of King Glynn. My party may pass these gates.”
The guard glanced at the seal, nodded, and waved them through the open gate. The party passed between the towers. Max spotted a guard on the top of each tower. The ridge stretched on into the distance, and Elderon led the way. They walked on until midmorning. After an hour or more, the ridge became wider, the slope on either side was less steep, the forest on either side was less dense. Max could see a dust cloud in the far north where the forest gave way to low, flat grasslands.
“That is the open plain of the Hinge,” Anita said.
“And that dust cloud is being thrown up by thousands of marching feet,” Jahrod said.
Max peered into the distance. The dust rose up off the grassy plain. The cloud started at the end of the Salt River to the west and stretched for a mile or two. Max found it difficult to judge the distances. Still, he couldn’t see an army, no individuals, just the cloud of dust sitting over them.
As a strong breeze came off the Salt River, the dust was blown away and thinned. Max saw a glinting light through the dust. He knew somehow that it was the glint of weapons and armor shining under the late morning sun.
“I wish I had a telescope,” Max said.
“A what?” Anita asked.
“A device that can let you see things that are far away.” Max shielded his eyes from the sun and tried to make out detail under the dust cloud.
“Does it work something like this?” Elderon said.
>
>
> Elderon casts Far Sight.
>
>
Elderon waved his arm in front of him. The effect was to create a huge lens in the air that was at least five feet across. Max looked through the area of the spell and could see the distant army. Ranks of men in armor marching steadily. A large wagon, as big as a house on wheels and six feet tall, rolled along in the middle of the army. At the rear, he saw two large black shapes, too distant to make out even using Elderon’s Far Sight spell.
“That is the banner of Castle Deadtide, the banner of King Aris Deadtide,” Jahrod said.
“Indeed so.” Elderon held his hands together and then moved them apart. The magical lens zoomed in more closely.
Max looked at the faces of the soldiers on the march. Dark lines spread over their faces, gathering in dark pools about the eyes. Pale skin with black veins and black eyes.
“They have been taken by the darkness,” Max said. “How can we hope to stop them? There must be thousands of them.”
Max checked the stats on one of the Deadtide soldiers.
>
>
> Name: Deadtide Soldier
>
> Status: Taken by Darkness
>
> Attack: Stabbing Spear
>
> Threat level: Dangerous
>
>
“We are not here to fight them,” Elderon said. “We are here to observe and confirm the reports from King Glynn’s scouts. Tell me, Max. How do you rate the army? What is its size and disposition?”
Max stepped back from the lens of Far Sight and took in the wider picture.
“I’d say the army is massive and aggressive.”
“And I’d say they are only two days march from Ralynn City,” Jahrod said.
“Then we must move quickly,” Anita said.
Elderon collapsed the lens of Far Sight and led the party back along the ridge towards the tollgate.
It was late afternoon by the time Max spotted the palisade crossing the ridge path and the gate towers. His throat was dry, and he wondered if the guards there had a supply of water, even ale, something to slake his thirst. The closer he got, the thirstier he got. He looked out for the guards.
By the time they were only a half mile away, Max wondered why he had not yet spotted a guard and why they had not yet spotted them. These guards were the first Ralynn city soldiers the approaching army would meet. Had they abandoned their posts?
At a thousand yards out, Max noticed Jahrod and Anita checking their weapons. Max sensed it too.
“Something’s not right,” Max said.
Elderon nodded in agreement.
The party reached the gate. Open and unguarded. Max went to the window in the small gatehouse. He peered in.
He saw the bodies of six Ralynn guards.
“They are dead,” Max said.
Then Max saw movement. Four figures clad entirely in black came out of the guardhouse and confronted the party. Longswords dripping with blood in their hands.